Editor's Corner

Web 2.0 Growing Pains 
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. What I have for you today is a tale of two stories; news items that demonstrate both the challenges that Web 2.0 software faces in the coming years, as well as the potential that it holds. Let's start with the good news: Adobe has announced that it will release a web-based version of its flagship Photoshop product in a scant six months. It's funny, I've often thought that the first well-known piece of desktop software to go online would be something a little less hardware-intensive--you know, something like a word processor or a spreadsheet app. Granted, the web-based version of Photoshop that Adobe plans to launch will be very scaled down, more so than even Photoshop Elements. But I'm still willing to bet dollars to donuts that it'll sap more system resources than your average word processor.

So why is this so important? There are a couple of reasons: first off, Adobe Photoshop is a very popular application, with graphics professionals and message board trolls alike. While many consumers wish that they had access to the advanced tools in Photoshop, most have trouble justifying the high price. The online version of Photoshop will introduce droves of people to Photoshop, not to mention, the idea of web-based, ad-supported software. Need to quickly adjust the size of a photo? Want to remove those demonic red eyes? Just launch Photoshop in a browser window, as easily as you would Gmail and get to work. It's good for the user, it's good for Adobe's brand visibility and it's good for Web 2.0.

Adobe's announcement is also important because it demonstrates that large software companies see the coming threat of Web 2.0--and they're trying to evolve before it's too late. "It's something we are sensitive to because we are watching folks like Google do it in different categories, and we want to make sure that we are there before they are, in areas of our franchises," Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said (see article in "Geek News"). If you ask me, this is a sage move on Adobe's part. Why isn't the first major desktop app to go Web 2.0 a word processor? Because Microsoft is hedging its bets, claiming that the future of the desktop isn't on the web. Keep in mind that Microsoft has been wrong about this whole "Internet" thing before--and this time, they stand to lose more than just a chance to get in on the ground floor.

But it isn't all roses in the world of online applications. The current darling of the Web 2.0 world, Google, is finding out the hard way that web-based software will come coupled with all sorts of challenges. Hot on the heels of releasing its first web-based software suite for the enterprise, the company has experienced its first bout of significant downtime (see story in "Geek News"). While paying customers had an SLA in place, some have grumbled that Google didn't handle the situation as well as it could have. Google knows the web and it knows software--but it will have to learn customer service before the enterprise can take it seriously.

Despite the challenges inherent to Web 2.0 development, I think we'll ultimately look back and see companies like Adobe, Google and Intel as pioneers in a brave new world. Sure, the transition from the desktop to the web will be a painful one, but the writing is on the wall--you might as well get a head start, while you still can. -Mehan